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By Hooker by Crook
"By Hooker By Crook" is the twentieth episode of Miami Vice's third season. The episode premiered on March 20, 1987 and repeated on May 13, 1988. Summary Crockett romances a businesswoman who is really a madam, with a girl in her stable that is a murder witness. Plot Crockett and Tubbs (as Burnett and Cooper) are attending a charity function, and Crockett chats with Christine Von Marburg (Melanie Griffith), who is looking for new business contacts. Tubbs says the man they are there to see is getting ready to leave, and Crockett reluctantly breaks off the conversation, promising to call her, though Christine looks doubtful and says she's not listed. The man they are looking for, Symington, has gone to a hotel with a woman named Ali Ferrand (Vanity) while Crockett and Tubbs wait. At Symington's room, there are two goons (Capt. Lou Albano and Afa Anoai) waiting inside. They grab Symington as he opens the door and one chases Ali, but she slips into the elevator just in time. Crockett and Tubbs are waiting for Symington to leave the hotel when he is thrown off the balcony and comes crashing down in front of them. Ali frantically gathers some clothes and gets out of her room, leaving behind a newspaper headlined by Symington's death. Symington was a suspected money launderer, and the squad figures he had some unhappy customers; presumably Ali left without checking on him. Crockett runs Christine through the system and finds her unlisted number, then goes to see the host of the previousnight's party. The goons that killed Symington report to their boss, Kenneth Togaru (George Takei), who sends them to kill Ali before the police find her. Crockett and Tubbs see the party's host (Veronica Cartwright) who is surprised about the turn of events; she provides Ali's name but has no other info, other than that she had some risque pictures of herself made at DeLa Moreno-- Izzy's latest scam. They go to see Izzy at his Boudoir Photography studio, where they get Ali's address, and they find her room cleaned out. Crockett calls Christine and invites her to dinner at a restaurant which she says she knows all too well. Crockett (as Burnett) asks her her history with the restaurant, and she discloses that it is where she broke up with her significant other, with whom she was together for a year. She asks Burnett about his business, and Crockett is cagey. Crockett asks her about her business, and she responds that she owns CVM Enterprises and is an entrepreneur. When he asks what that means, she is equally cagey and uses Crockett's response, "A little bit of this, and a little bit of that." They return to her apartment, where she mentions she graduated from Brown with a minor in Theater and has a thing for Shakespeare. She then turns to Crockett/Burnett and thanks him for the evening. He is disappointed and makes light of it, and she responds with a chaste kiss. After Crockett leaves, Christine is met by a terrified Ali, who tells her they killed "Chuckie" (Symington). Castillo wants the squad to continue their investigation of the Symington murder, while Togaru's goons rough up Izzy to get a line on Ali. Izzy reveals that Ali is a hooker that works for Caprice Escort Service, and Crockett asks Switek to have Gina and Trudy run it down. Switek is on stakeout at Ali's apartment complex but she hasn't returned. Christine asks Ali for a little privacy for the evening's date with Crockett, and Ali lets her know she's going to get out of town. She returns to her apartment wearing a wig, and from a distance Switek doesn't recognize her. Crockett and Christine make love in her apartment, while Togaru's goons await Ali at her apartment; they tie her up and strangle her to death. Trudy determines that Ali was not turning tricks in her apartment and Crockett and Tubbs go to check out Caprice. Crockett notices that Christine's business is in the same building as Caprice. When they arrive they find a bunch of women talking dirty on the phone to callers, and the receptionist declines to provide a list of Ali's recent contacts or the owner's info, so Crockett asks her to have the boss contact him before he gets a warrant. After Crockett and Tubbs leave, the receptionist picks up the phone, presumably to call the boss. Crockett and Tubbs (as Burnett and Cooper) stop by to see Christine, who is visibly upset but passes it off over a land deal falling through. Tubbs notices a newspaper article stating that she was selected as "Businesswoman of the Year"; Crockett (as Burnett) offers to celebrate with pizza and champagne that evening, which Christine first declines but then accepts. Later in bed, Christine starts to question Crockett/Burnett's caginess. When he offers his birthday is July 29, he asks Christine to give in turn. Christine offers that she is appearing on a TV show, Miami at Midday, the next day about her award. Burnett promises to watch. The TV host (Bill Boggs) does his segment while Crockett watches, and Trudy comes in with a report for Crockett which he asks her to wait. The host discusses her wealthy and prestigious family and blindsides her with the news that a good portion of her money comes from the Caprice Escort Service, and that she is a madam. Christine is left floundering in the interview, and Crockett is stunned that he didn't see it coming. Trudy has found that the Caprice Escort Service is run by a foreign corporation with ties to a domestic corporation whose principal stockholder is Christine, and Castillo gets a request from downtown to pick up a madam - Christine. Gina and Trudy are sent out. Crockett requests phone records on Christine and Symington, which reveal that Christine called Symington 42 time in the past three months, with eight calls before his death. She also had calls to Togaru, whom Symington worked for as Chief Financial Officer. Crockett stops by to see Christine in the interrogation room. She is surprised to see his badge, and after dismissing her lawyer, she asks if she was setup. Crockett says he had no idea who she was, and asks what her excuse is. Christine explains the madam job started as a joke on her highly-respected family, then became a job, then the money was too good to be true, but that she herself never hooked. She admits to setting up Symington with Ali, and letting Togaru know about it. She explains that Symington was skimming some of the money he was laundering for Togaru, and Ali was and innocent bystander in all of it. Togaru was a client who became a very good friend and her mentor in the corporate world. Crockett offers Christine a chance to clear her name by setting Togaru up with a meet between Cooper and Burnett - who are offering to take over Symington's role - and to help her get money to leave the country, since her assets have been frozen. She tells Crockett it may get messy, since Togaru was in love with her at one point. With a bug in her purse, she meets with Togaru while Crockett and Switek are listening in the Bug Van. Togaru reminds her of the first rule of business, and she offers to be a "good friend" to him. He says they can do better than that, and she reluctantly agrees to spend the night with him. The meet and plan is set at Togaru's house, but Togaru figures out that they are cops and gives a nod to his heavies. Two other shooters appear and start firing; Crockett tosses Christine behind the sushi bar, and he and Tubbs kill the baddies. Christine pops up from behind the bar with a gun and kills Togaru, who was about to shoot Crockett. With her record cleared, Christine stops by to see Crockett on the St. Vitus Dance to say good-bye, as she's leaving the country to get away from all the negative press. She sits next to Crockett, and jokes that the publisher of the newspaper and the commentator on Channel 8 were both big clients of hers, and that they are all bastards. Crockett asks if that goes for him as well, and she says he's probably the biggest bastard of them all. She then kisses him softly, a kiss he doesn't refuse but doesn't return, and leaves. Cast *Don Johnson as Metro-Dade Detective James "Sonny" Crockett *Philip Michael Thomas as Metro-Dade Detective Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs *Saundra Santiago as Metro-Dade Detective Gina Calabrese *Michael Talbott as Metro-Dade Detective Stan Switek *Olivia Brown as Metro-Dade Detective Trudy Joplin *Edward James Olmos as Metro-Dade Lieutenant Martin "Marty" Castillo Guest Stars *Melanie Griffith as Christine Von Marburg *Vanity as Ali Ferrand *Martin Ferrero as Izzy Moreno *Veronica Cartwright as Society Dame *Capt. Lou Albano as Goon #1 *Afa Anoai as Goon #2 *Bill Boggs as TV Host *George Takei as Kenneth Togaru Co-Starring *Janet Constable as Susu *Stephen Edward as Kingman Draper Notes * The character "Christine Von Marburg" was named for Dick Wolf's then-wife, Christine Marburg, who he was married to from 1983-2005 and had three children with, whose names he used for characters in his Law & Order franchise; Olivia (played by Mariska Hargitay) and Elliot (played by Christopher Meloni until 2011) as the main detectives in the Law & Order: SVU series, and Sarina, changed to Serena (played by Elisabeth Rohm) for his ADA in the original Law & Order series. * Crockett uses a Commodore Amiga computer when looking up Christine's information, which was a major PC player during the mid 1980s. * The line "First a junkie, now a hooker" refers to Crockett's recent luck with romances. Deleted Scenes/Censorship * This episode originally had a longer sex scene between Crockett and Christine, but NBC deemed the sequence "too hot for television" and ordered it cut back when repeated. This edited version is the only one to appear since, including in syndication, on the DVD releases, on Hulu, and on Netflix. The uncut scene runs almost two minutes, while the revised version runs 1:12. A similar incident occurred in the first season episode "Rites of Passage" involving a sex scene with Tubbs and Valerie Gordon (played by Pam Grier). Goofs * Christine shoots Togaru with a semi-automatic handgun, but sets a revolver down on the bar. * After Christine shoots Togaru, the slide on Crockett's Smith & Wesson changes between shots (staying back, indicating the gun is empty, to forward, indicating it's still loaded). Production Notes *Filmed: January 26, 1987 - February 4, 1987 *Production Code: 62026 *Production Order: 63 Filming Locations *1000 Venetian Way (Symington pushed off balcony) *Biscayne Blvd near Everglades Hotel, 244 Biscayne Blvd (Izzy's studio) *South Bayshore Drive / Mary Street Coconut Grove (Exterior of Christine's apartment) Music *"30,000 Feet" by Broken Homes (Opening sequence at party and Symington's death) *"Split Decision" by Steve Winwood (Crockett & Christine make love while Ali is killed) *"Holding Back The Years" by Simply Red (ending with Crockett and Christine on boat) Quotes *"Is it Symington?" "Well, it isn't the bluebird of happiness."--''Tubbs and Crockett after Symington plummets to land next to their car'' *"Would've done him more good if he could've used it for a parachute!" -- Crockett referring to Symington's MBA *"The only way she (Ali) could have killed him was in the bed!" -- Tubbs *"The only way he got to any of these places was through extradition!" -- Crockett about Izzy's list of cities for his photography studio *"You're defecating the Fifth Amendment!" "Oh, you'd defoliate my freedom?"--''Izzy being interrogated by Crockett and Tubbs'' *"How many times do I have to tell you?! I photograph beautiful women, not meatballs!" -- Izzy to Crockett and Tubbs after he's roughed up *"The next time you withhold information from me, pal, I'm gonna have a little chat with your parole officer, and then you get to play "Hide The Soap!" -- Crockett to Izzy Category:Miami Vice Season 3 Episodes